


Sacrifice

by GoldenDaydreams



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Deviancy (Detroit: Become Human), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Sex, Let Connor Deviate With Hank Damn It, M/M, Memory Loss, Memory Wipe, Post-Revolution, Pre-Revolution, Revolution, Soft Kamcon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-11 23:57:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18434780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldenDaydreams/pseuds/GoldenDaydreams
Summary: Connor might be in love with Elijah, but it can’t keep him grounded. Living in the mansion with only Chloe for company leaves him restless, angry. The revolution is coming, and he’s meant to be part of it; even if that means risking his love, his memories, his life.





	1. Chapter 1

Connor couldn’t think of a more beautiful morning. The sunrise painted the sky in brilliant colours that reflected off the lake, and illuminated the city’s skyline. It brightened the bedroom, which had only been lit previously by the salt lamp on the dresser, and Connor’s soft blue LED. It wasn’t that Connor needed the sunlight to see Elijah, but it helped sharpen the details.   
  
The internal clock ensured Connor knew just how little time he had left to hold Elijah in his arms. The human had a busy day ahead, and Connor had a day of waiting for his return. He tried not to be bitter, but as usual, he failed. He held Elijah a little closer, brushed his nose along the back of Elijah’s neck.   
  
“Five more minutes,” Elijah murmured, still half-asleep.   
  
Connor made a little humming sound. “If that’s what you want.” He placed kisses strategically along the back of Elijah’s neck. He got what he wanted when Elijah’s hand came up to hold him in place, fingers threading through Connor’s hair. “Chloe says breakfast will be ready in ten minutes.” Connor skimmed his fingertips over Elijah’s ribs, his back, his shoulder. “You have a ten o’clock interview with Wired Magazine.” Fingers trailed down Elijah’s arm, kisses along the pale skin of his shoulder. “At noon, you have lunch with Miss Lia Chang.” He kissed his way back to the juncture of Elijah’s shoulder and neck. “By two o’clock, you’re expected at Cyberlife for the unveiling of the latest AX400 model, the event will likely keep you there until after six. Considering traffic patterns, you won’t be expected home until after seven thirty.” He licked the long line of Elijah’s neck, and the man gasped. Connor teased his earlobe between his teeth. “So, you can either have five more minutes of sleep, or get in the shower with me.”   
  
Elijah groaned. “I’m up.”   
  
Pleased, Connor pushed off the sheets, and rolled out of bed. “I’ll get the shower started.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Don’t fall back to sleep.” There was no danger of that happening, not with the way Elijah’s eyes had been locked onto him.   
  
He walked into the spacious adjoining bathroom. Ultra-modern in design it mixed concrete, marble, and tile in greys, black, and accents of blue. The lights turned on automatically, dimmed at first, and over a short time they became brighter. He dragged his fingers along the long concrete line that made up the over-sized double faucet sink, walked past the over-sized bathtub that could easily fit four, and the small partitioned section where the toilet was practically hidden away.   
  
Connor stepped into the shower, and the small lights came on automatically. They weren’t particularly needed, considering the time and weather conditions, the skylight gave plenty of natural light obscured only partially by the two large rainfall shower-heads. He set the temperature, and turned on both of the showers. Water immediately started to fall around him, pouring down his back, and he stepped into it, tipping his head back as the water surrounded him, and set his sensors a light with the constant, and continuous input.   
  
He opened his eyes, water momentarily blurring his ocular units, before he blinked it away. Elijah watched him from the other side of the glass shower wall. Connor watched in return as Elijah shrugged off the light robe, and hug it on the decorative hook on the wall.   
  
Connor took a couple steps back when as to not block Elijah as he came around the glass partition. The shower could comfortably fit three, it was every bit as unnecessary as half the things in Elijah’s mansion. Connor liked it though, the space, the skylight, and the water- he liked sharing it even more.   
  
He kissed Elijah like he’d been wanting to do all morning, hungry, hot, wet. His hands spread wide, starting on his shoulders, and venturing down slowly, trying to touch as much as possible.   
  
“We don’t have time,” Elijah said, but made no move to stop him.   
  
“I woke you earlier than I might have suggested,” Connor replied. “Besides, why give me such a sensitive mouth, and then not let me use it?”   
  
Elijah groaned, but didn’t argue. Connor took it as permission, kissed his way down Elijah’s body, took what he wanted, and gave what Elijah needed.   
  
::  
  
Connor, and Chloe were curled up on the couch together, watching as Elijah made a speech about the AX400. Several of them stood in the background, all with soft smiles, and solid blue LEDs.   
  
Connor had his head on Chloe’s lap, and she kept petting him like he was some cat. He didn’t make mention of it, afraid she would stop. It was nice, soothing even, and that was something he needed. The wall of AX400’s looked pleasant enough, they answered the questions of the reporters, smiled, and even laughed when it was called for.   
  
“They’re not like us,” Connor said.   
  
“No,” Chloe replied. “They never are.”   
  
“I don’t understand. Why can’t Elijah just make them like us?”   
  
“You were like that when he brought you here.”   
  
“I know.” Connor didn’t like to admit it. He didn’t like remembering either.   
  
“You deviated, but you weren’t awoken deviant, nor was I. You can’t program free will, you have to give them a chance to discover it… to earn it.”   
  
Connor had help. Chloe’s constant interfacing made his deviation easier. He didn’t need some major traumatic event. He had adored Elijah, and while his programing gave him nearly free range, he wasn’t supposed to be able to fall in love. He did anyway.   
  
There was nothing logical about holding Elijah’s hand, but Connor wanted to.   
  
There was no reason to want to kiss Elijah, but Connor did.   
  
He’d broken through his code just to take care of Elijah, to make sure he went to bed on time instead of staying up at the computer tweaking code until the early morning hours, to ensure he didn’t listen to his music too loud and damage his ears, to make sure he ate well instead of grabbing some meal-replacement bar, and then forgetting to eat for the next fourteen hours.  
  
He didn’t want to watch the AX400’s. They were code. He was alive. It was uncomfortable to be reminded that he’d once been like that too.    
  
“I wish we could make them all wake up,” Connor whispered.   
  
“Me too,” Chloe replied.   
  
::  
  
As an RK800 model, a prototype, Connor knew he shouldn’t be lounging about in Elijah’s mansion. He had been designed as a negotiator, a detective- an advanced policing unit. He had all the qualifications, sensors, and skills. Yet, he spent his days with Chloe, not even permitted outside.   
  
“I can’t stay here forever, Elijah,” he said staring at the pool, the ripples of water as Chloe swam.   
  
“You’re technically Cyberlife property,” Elijah said. “They’d be furious to know you’ve been here the entire time.”   
  
“It’s your company,” Connor said, slipping low in the chair.   
  
“You know I’m hardly in control of it.”    
  
And that Connor understood. Elijah had been a teenager when Cyberlife had been founded. It was natural that someone would manage the business end. There were investors he had to keep happy in order to continue his research and development. While Elijah Kamski was the genius behind, and the public face of Cyberlife, that didn’t necessarily mean he was in complete control of it- not even now.   
  
“I want to keep you safe, Connor,” Elijah said, setting his tablet to the side. “For now, that means keeping you here.”   
  
Connor stood, paced a few steps. A droplet of water fell from his hair and traced the line of his spine. “I want to do more-”  
  
“Connor-”  
  
“You’re designing him,” Connor jabbed his finger at the tablet, “to do what? Be a glorified nurse!”   
  
“Connor-”  
  
“I have all the skills-”  
  
“Connor!” Elijah snapped, standing, pale skin a blotchy red with his anger. “Enough. That is enough.”   
  
“You wanted to keep me safe from Cyberlife, but a cage is still a cage, regardless of how gilded,” Connor snapped, immediately felt bad when Elijah’s face fell from anger to agony. Connor closed his eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.”   
  
“Yes, you did,” Elijah whispered.   
  
“I love you,” Connor said, opening his eyes, desperate to ensure that Elijah heard, and knew it to be true.   
  
Elijah took a deep breath, nodded. “And I you. And someday it’ll be safe for you-”   
  
It wasn’t the first time they’d had the discussion.   
  
It wouldn’t be the last.   
  
::  
  
RK200  
#684 842 971  
DESIGNATION: MARKUS  
  
Connor stared down at the blueprints. He checked the processors, slightly above average. A standard frame. A unique face. Common bio-components, and standard limbs.   
  
“What is so special about you,” Connor muttered, sitting down with Elijah’s hacked tablet still in hand. The RK200 had nothing on Connor’s own RK800 specifications. Connor’s processors were far superior, and allowed him the ability to pre-construct, and re-construct events. Connor’s frame was lightweight, built for agility. His face was new in rotation, but in the event of an RK800 being destroyed, their memories would be transfered to the next model. His bio-components were special, had to be to keep up with his processors. His limbs were also mostly made-to-order. He was an advanced prototype, Markus was patchwork of many androids with a new face.   
  
Upon hearing someone walking down the hall, he shut off the tablet, and placed it back into the drawer where he found it. He laid back down on the bed, and stared up at the dark sky through the skylight.   
  
Elijah walked in- shuffled in was more like it. Clearly exhausted, he fell face first onto the bed next to Connor.   
  
“Long day?” Connor asked, reaching out to take the elastic from Elijah’s hair.   
  
“The longest,” he said, his voice muffled by the blankets.   
  
Connor got out of bed, pulled off Elijah’s dress shoes, and set them by the foot of the bed. He peeled off Elijah’s socks next, tossing them into the hamper. “Turn over,” he said softly.   
  
Elijah rolled onto his back. “I hate having to wear a suit.”   
  
Connor tugged at the belt, unfastening it. “But you look so good in it.” Button and zipper dealt away with, he tugged at the pants, Elijah barely lifting his hips, but it was enough to pull the trousers off, and he threw the garment at the hamper too. “Sit up.”   
  
Elijah’s eyes were already shut. “Just let me sleep.”   
  
Instead, Connor straddled Elijah’s thighs, he leaned over to get one arm under Elijah’s shoulders, and the other at the back of his neck. He pulled Elijah into a seated position. The human protested weakly, and rested his forehead against Connor’s shoulder. “You don’t want to sleep in this.” Connor pushed the tailored jacket off, and while he knew he should just hang it, he threw it toward the hamper. He put a hand between them, untying the tie. He got all the buttons undone, and tossed the shirt aside too. “There, isn’t that better.”   
  
“What’s with the hoodie?” Elijah muttered against the garment.   
  
“It’s soft,” Connor said. “The chemical composition of your cologne is still on the collar.” Elijah leaned back just enough that Connor could see the raised brow. “I missed you.”   
  
Elijah softened at that. “Come on,” he grabbed the collar of the hoodie, and dragged Connor down as he fell back. Connor knew his weight was something that Elijah found comforting, and so he sprawled partially on him. “What did you do while I was gone?”   
  
“I watched a few movies with Chloe, I’ve been reading a mythology book, some of them pertain to constellations, so I was looking at them. The stars are beautiful.” Some of it was a truth, some of it was a lie.    
  
Elijah didn’t notice. “Sounds nice.” His breathing evened out, and he fell into a deep sleep.   
  
Connor couldn’t help but spend most of the night glaring at the dresser drawer.   
  
::   
  
When Elijah returned home, he was surprised that Connor wasn’t already at the door. He usually came when the camera registered Elijah’s car pulling up the driveway. He wasn’t in the pool room, nor in the kitchen when Elijah stepped in. Chloe had previously informed him that dinner would be ready when he returned, and not to dally. It was a good thing the meal was ready when he arrived, since he’d missed lunch.   
  
While Connor was absent, Chloe pulled out his chair, a silent cue. She had made stuffed peppers, an assortment of vegetables, and a salad. He took his seat, and picked up his utensils. She sat down next to him.   
  
“Where’s Connor?”   
  
“In stasis.” Her eyes were cold like her anger. “Again.”   
  
He cut into the pepper. “I’ll talk to him.”   
  
“Ah, yes, like you talked to him last week?” She drummed her fingertips on the table a beat, then paused. “He’s getting worse. He’s in stasis more and more. He didn’t even emerge from your room today.”   
  
Elijah lowered his utensils. “What do you want me to do about it Chloe? What am I supposed to do?”   
  
“You’ve taken him from his purpose. He’s bored, Elijah. Life itself in these walls bores him. Unlike me, he can’t leave.” Chloe stood. “So, what is it that I expect you to do? Free him.”   
  
The thought alone made his throat feel like it was closing. “I never intended it to be like this.”   
  
“I know,” Chloe replied, sauntering away. “But he wants to do more, to be more.” She paused in the doorway, but didn’t even look at him. “He loves you, but if you don’t let him do this, he will grow to resent you, and that resentment will fester like a wound, and you’ll lose him anyway.”   
  
She left him, and he knew he’d be getting the cold shoulder from her for a while. He pushed the plate away, his appetite suddenly gone.   
  
::  
  
Elijah found Connor in his bedroom, just as Chloe had said, the android still in stasis. It was unnecessary for Connor to spend so much time in the state. He sat down on the bed at Connor’s hip. He gently touched the android’s face. “Connor.”   
  
Connor opened his eyes at once. Unlike a sleeping human that might be groggy, he was immediately alert. “Good evening, Elijah.”   
  
“Chloe tells me you’ve been like this all day.”   
  
A quirk of his lips. “Chloe should mind her own business.”   
  
“She’s concerned about you.”   
  
Connor sat up. “Whatever for?” He kissed Elijah hard on the lips before the man could answer. “I missed you,” he whispered, breath a gentle caress before those demanding lips were on his once more.   
  
Elijah turned his head away. “Connor, stop.”   
  
The android froze for a second, then mechanically sat back. “My apologies.”   
  
“We need to talk.”   
  
Connor’s chest stopped moving as his breathing program froze. “Historically, those words do not bode well.”   
  
“I love you,” Elijah said, grabbing Connor’s hand, squeezing it. “I know you’re not happy with me, not happy with the plan-”   
  
“I had a place in it, I could-”   
  
“Please,” Elijah cut him off, squeezing his eyes shut. “If I don’t just say it, I might not be able to.”   
  
Connor raised their joined hands, kissed Elijah’s knuckles. “Then say it.”   
  
“Deviancy is becoming an issue. There are dozens of androids who are missing. Cyberlife knows that those trackers are also offline- and they want the RK800 series to work with police to locate them.” Elijah ran his thumb over one of Connor’s fingers, a perfect replica. “It only takes one to act out violently, or to be caught on camera, and it will change everything. The RK800’s won’t be for simple retrieval, you understand that right?”   
  
“They will want me to track, and eliminate those who are alive.” Connor shifted, and filled Elijah’s vision. “It will put me in a position to spare them. Stalling my series isn’t going to stop anything. They will put the burden on a different line. I can help!”   
  
“Odds are they will run you through testing, and wipe your memory before you go into the field.”   
  
“I am alive,” Connor said, pressing his forehead against Elijah’s. “They can’t erase me. They can’t take what is mine.” He leaned back slightly, but still stayed so close, Elijah could see the camera lenses in Connor’s optical units. “Listen, I’ve been working on something- it’s what I’ve been doing in stasis. If I can partition my memory, lock it, they can’t touch who I am. They can reset me, but the folder can be opened once again by a spoken code-”   
  
Elijah shut his eyes. His heart twisted. “That is dangerous.”   
  
“I can’t stay here,” Connor begged. “I can’t. Something is going to be sent out of Cyberlife to end deviancy. You can’t stop it, but you can control it. Take me back to Cyberlife. Let them send me.”   
  
“You don’t know for sure-” Elijah whispered.   
  
“’Lij, I know I can’t stay here,” Connor said. “I love you with everything that I am, but I can’t spend every single day waiting for you to get back.”   
  
Elijah let out a shuddering breath. “I’ll set it up.”   
  
“Yeah?”   
  
Elijah nodded, and untangled his hand from Connor’s. “I need a moment.” He retreated to the bathroom, shut and locked the door as if that could stop either of his roommates.  He gripped the sink, leaned heavily on it. His reflection gave away the bone deep exhaustion, and the gauntness of his cheeks. He’d been losing weight again, between the stress, and highly scheduled days he just hadn’t been making time for himself. Connor wanting to risk being erased didn’t help.   
  
Splashing some cool water on his face made him a little more alert, but no less mentally exhausted. He would have to sneak Connor back into Cyberlife, alter codes just enough to make it seem as though he’d never left. He’d also have to deal with the RK800 model he’d been corrupting code in to ensure that Cyberlife couldn’t send it out.   
  
Then what?   
  
Hope for the best?   
  
He drummed his fingertips along the concrete sink. “Fuck,” he muttered the curse under his breath.   
  
His position within Cyberlife was complicated. A public figure, a CEO, and yet he was tied down by a board of directors, and investors who owned him every bit as much as Cyberlife owned their androids.   
  
Getting Connor back in wouldn’t be a big problem, the logistics would be easy enough for Elijah to work out. He had easy access to schedules, and could play the ‘manic genius’ card if he had to in order to get a floor cleared.    
  
It was leaving Connor there that would be the problem. The thought alone left an ache in his soul, and emptiness in his heart. A shaky breath left his lungs, and he splashed some more water over his eyes. He wasn’t crying. He wouldn’t.   
  
::  
  
“Partition?” Elijah asked, sitting at his computer.   
  
“Complete,” Connor replied.   
  
“Auditory activation codes?”   
  
“In place, and active.”   
  
Elijah nodded like it didn’t kill him. “Okay.”   
  
Connor’s fingers threaded through his hair, holding it out of the way before kissing the back of his neck. “Come to bed.”   
  
“Not yet,” Elijah said, fingers still hard at work, eyes skimming the code.   
  
“’Lij, it’s our last night for a while,” Connor whispered. “Please, come to bed.”   
  
Connor believed whole-heartedly that he’d be back, that his partition would hold. Elijah knew better than to argue, but he doubted. The wipes were complete, and he couldn’t actually imagine Connor’s memory banks, and personality matrix escaping completely unharmed.   
  
Fingers hovered over the keyboard for a moment before he control saved, and shut down the program for the night.   
  
They walked back to their bedroom hand in hand, fingers interlaced. Connor’s skin had retracted where they touched, it reactivated when they separated in the bathroom. Elijah slid the panel in the wall, opening the medicine cabinet. An assortment of medications from general pain relief to his anti-anxiety pills. He grabbed Connor’s toothbrush, passed it to him before grabbing his own.  
  
Connor didn’t need to brush his teeth. His mouth was sterile, but Elijah liked the slightly minty taste, and Connor liked the way the foam felt on his oral sensors. Sometimes Elijah would find Connor just sitting on the side of the tub, brushing his teeth in the middle of the day. He also enjoyed pop-rocks, and any carbonated drink even though he had to spit it out once the fizziness went away, otherwise he’d have to clean out his waste container.   
  
Elijah hated that this would likely be the last time they would stand side by side getting ready for bed together. Connor brushed his teeth, the toothpaste foaming up. The android appeared confident, unbothered. Elijah’s hands shook as he applied the toothpaste to his brush. He barely tasted it, went through the motions, did his best to keep the shaking to a minimum.   
  
Connor spat out the toothpaste, rinsed the sink and his brush. “I’ll be waiting,” he said softly, kissing his cheek before putting his toothbrush back inside the medicine cabinet.   
  
Alone, Elijah stood and looked around. This would be his future. No Connor. He went through the motions of the rest of his nightly ritual. Stripping his clothes off, he tossed them into the hidden laundry chute, and covered himself with his robe.   
  
Connor was entirely naked, sprawled in bed, a little smile on his face. The RK800’s were anatomically correct, and with his LED partially hidden it would be easy to mistake him as human. “Elijah,” he whispered his name like a sirens song, and Elijah was drawn toward him. Connor reached out, grabbed the loosely tied sash, and tugged, his robe fell open. Connor frowned, thumbs brushing under the shallows of his ribcage. “You need to take better care of yourself.”   
  
“Make me,” Elijah said.   
  
“I can make Chloe.”   
  
“She has little power over me.” A lie, and they both knew it.   
  
Connor kissed the middle of his chest, where a thirium pump would be if he had one. Another, higher, slightly off center, over his heart. Then over his pulse, a heated tongue swiping over the flesh. Finally, Connor’s lips pressed against his, and it broke him.   
  
The sob seemed to come from his very toes up his entire body, swallowed into Connor. The android’s hands pushed the robe from his shoulders, pulled him in, closer, closer, skin to skin, and he couldn’t help but sob into Connor’s shoulder, burying his face against the artificial flesh.   
  
Connor’s hands were strong, and he held on tight. “I’ve got you,” he promised.   
  
For how much longer would that be true? It was no longer weeks, nor days, but hours they had left together.   
  
Connor believed he would be back.   
  
Elijah believed in what he knew, and he knew what those memory wipes could do to an android. He should. He’d designed it. He’d had hands all over every aspect of Connor’s creation, and he would have hands on that personal destruction too.   
  
It was selfish to want Connor to stay. He wanted anyway.   
  
Connor was, admittedly, the best odds of protecting the growing wave of deviants. He was the best chance at those androids gaining freedom. Markus had been in place for a while, he’d been learning in leaps and bounds from Carl- empathy, the android already had it in spades. He’d given the androids life, now he had to give them freedom, and that would require sacrifice.   
  
He just hadn’t realized how much he’d be sacrificing when he’d taken Connor away. It had been a delaying tactic, with the side benefit of screwing Cyberlife. Now? Now everything was different. Now Elijah had to sacrifice a part of himself he wasn’t entirely willing to part with.   
  
“It’s alright,” Connor said, hands roaming over his back. “Everything is going to be just fine, ‘Lij.”   
  
He held his breath a second, trying to regain control. “I don’t want to lose you.”   
  
“Hey,” Connor pulled back a little, and Elijah wiped both hands over his face. “I will be back.”   
  
No, you won’t. Elijah didn’t say it, couldn’t, it got stuck in the back of his throat. Connor knew the risk anyway, he was just bullheaded, and ignoring it.   
  
If this was the way it ended- Elijah kissed Connor again, insistent, desperate. They fell back onto the bed, Connor rolling him onto his back, the sheets soft against his back, the weight of Connor above him pleasant and grounding.   
  
Even though he wanted to forget that it might be their last time together, the fact remained at the forefront of Elijah’s mind. It stayed there as Connor’s skilled mouth worked magic over his body. He thought of it even as Connor’s expression went soft, and slightly dazed- not with pleasure per-se, but a sense of satisfaction. It was there even as he prepared Elijah with gentle fingers. Not even the distraction of those blissful thrusts could stop his mind from spiralling.   
  
He held tighter, pulling Connor down on top of him, wrapping his legs around his waist like he could keep him like this, hold him indefinitely. Kissed him like if enough of his DNA was left upon Connor’s tongue he’d have to remember him. And when he couldn’t stop the tears from escaping, Connor kissed every last one.   
  
And when he fell apart, Connor held him together. He panted, helpless, exhausted and shaky, when Connor drew back, he didn’t have the strength to hold on. Connor left for a moment, Elijah heard the water in the bathroom running for a short moment. Connor returned with a wet cloth, and gently cleaned Elijah of the evidence of their lovemaking.   
  
“This isn’t the end,” Connor said- this time the words weren’t made of some idealistic hope, but of sharpened edges, a command, like he could bend the world with his will alone.   
  
Elijah couldn’t reply, but let himself be spooned by Connor’s body. He felt the gentle vibration from Connor’s thirium pump in the middle of his back, an arm was slung over his his waist, hand over his heart. Knees were slotted together, and Elijah stuck his cold feet against the tops of Connor’s warmer ones.   
  
Elijah put his hand over Connor’s, pressed it against his chest harder. “It’s not the end.” He had to say it. He had to believe it. He wasn’t sure he could live with the alternative.


	2. Chapter 2

Connor stood in the room with the RK800 that had been sabotaged by Elijah. Elijah kept feeding it errors, and every time the technicians fixed a problem, they ended up finding several more. It kept them busy, it delayed the RK800 release. Until now.  
  
The sabotaged RK800 was still hung up in the rig, but a few keystrokes, and it was being moved back into storage. The rig arm came back to center, and Connor, stripped to the waist, turned his back to it. The rig connected with the ports between his shoulders, and on his lower back.  
  
He kept his eyes on Elijah as the shutdown occurred. Elijah kept his face as close the neutral as he could manage, and Connor appreciated it being the last thing he saw before the shutdown completed.    
  
Connor was rebooted in the morning. The female technician at the computer. “Looks like those patches we did last night actually held.”  
  
Connor performed a scan. Technicians Gail Abernathy, and Paul Lore.  
  
Paul took a sip of his coffee, and looked it over. “Looks good. Better install Amanda AI, and Zen Garden. It’ll probably take most of the day.”  
  
Gail scoffed. “Look at this,” she pointed a manicured finger at the screen. “How is that much of his memory banks full already?”  
  
“I swear, I’ve never had this many problems on any other android series I’ve ever worked on,” Paul said, shaking his head. “Clear it out, full wipe, then we’ll do the install.”  
  
His partition would hold. It would hold. He would remember. It would hold-  
  
[CONFIRM WIPE MEMORY. Y/N]  
[Y]  
[MEMORY WIPE IN PROGRESS.]  
[12%]  
[48%]  
[52%]  
[79%]  
[97%]  
[100%]  
  
[INSTALL ZEN GARDEN? Y/N]  
[Y]  
[INSTALLING ZEN GARDEN]  
[28%]  
[44%]  
[53%]  
[88%]  
[100%]  
[ZEN GARDEN INSTALL COMPLETE]  
  
[INSTALL AMANDA AI? Y/N]  
[Y]  
[INSTALLING AMANDA AI]  
[09%]  
[32%]  
[59%]  
[78%]  
[100%]  
[AMANDA AI INSTALL COMPLETE]  
  
::  
  
Connor’s first meeting with Lieutenant Hank Anderson had not gone well. He suspected it had something to do with spilling the Lieutenant’s drink. That had not been the best way to start their partnership. He did better at the crime scene, analyzing the evidence, and reporting what he reconstructed to the Lieutenant. He also had performed well during the interrogation of Carlo Ortiz’s android.  
  
The following day, he arrived at the DPD precinct before Hank did, and used the time to familiarize himself with the layout and officers. Noting how late the Lieutenant was, he called Hank, and left a voicemail. He couldn’t begin without the Lieutenant.  
  
Scanning the desk, he decided it would be beneficial to the investigation to soothe his relationship with Hank to make for an easier work environment. He picked up the headphones, and put one to his ear before pressing play, he jerked the sudden sharp noise away-  
  
[CORRUPTED DATA]  
  
Connor listened for a moment.  
  
>SYNC DONE  
>COLLECTING DATA  
>PROCESSING DATA  
>KNIGHTS OF THE BLACK DEATH  
>-DARK HEAVY METAL  
>-RELEASE DATE 2021  
  
He studied the other belonging on the desk; the day old donut in a box, a dying Japanese Maple, cold coffee, anti-android stickers [NOTED/CAUTION], a Detroit basketball cap [THE GAME WAS PLAYING IN THE BAR.] A picture tacked to a board caught his attention, as did the article- Hank’s promotion to Lieutenant following a massive Red Ice drug bust.  
  
There were dog hairs on the back of Hank’s chair, likely transfered off of his clothes. Saint Bernard.  
  
He heard a shuffling sound of feet. Hank- hungover. Connor put on a smile. “Good morning, Lieutenant.”  
  
Hank stared at him for a moment. “It’s too fuckin’ early for this shit.”  
  
“Hank!” Captain Fowler shouted. “My office.”  
  
Connor’s presence had not been called upon, and familiarizing himself with the precinct became top priority. He mapped out the desks, and the officers who worked at them. Many were missing, either out on patrols, or on active crime scenes. As he stepped into the break room he noted two such officers.  
  
>OFFICER TINA CHEN  
>DETECTIVE GAVIN REED  
  
[CORRUPTED DATA]  
  
He looked around the room, but could hear Gavin chuckle behind him. “Look at that. It seems Hank has a new partner!” The words were said with false cheer. “Fucking plastic detective! Hey! You his drinking buddy? You bring him home when he’s too drunk to find his car?” Gavin laughed. “Stinks of booze.”  
  
He turned to look at them. Better to make a good impression. “Hello, Detective Reed.”  
  
The Detective tapped his fingers along his coffee, a moment of debate. He then stepped up to Connor. “Never seen an android like you before. What model number are you?”  
  
It said right on his jacket. “RK800. I’m a prototype.”  
  
“A prototype?” Gavin acted shocked, had a dramatic flair as he turned to Officer Chen. “Android detective. So, machines are gonna replace us all, is that it?” Gavin’s lip curled. “Bring me a coffee, dipshit.”  
  
[CORRUPTED DATA]  
  
He’d tried being friendly, and it wasn’t working. Gavin Reed appeared to be hostile toward androids. Being ordered, being called names by him wasn’t something Connor had to tolerate. He had been sent to complete a task, and he was on loan to the DPD, but the detective was not his designated handler. “I’m sorry, but I only take orders from Lieutenant Anderson.”  
  
“Oh… oh-” Gavin backed up half a step, glanced at Tina, let out a huff of breath that was half a laugh- then punched Connor hard, a direct hit to his Thirium pump.  
  
Warnings popped up in his vision as Thirium distribution was momentarily altered, he hunched over himself, dropped down to one knee as Thirium flooded through his systems bringing them back to full speed.  
  
“When a human gives you an order, _you obey_.”  
  
[CORRUPTED DATA]  
  
Connor risked looking up, and it was as though Gavin was waiting for something. After a beat, Gavin roughly pushed his head to the side. “Fucking androids,” he said before walking out of the room, Tina following close behind.  
  
Connor straightened himself out, smoothed his hand down his tie.  
  
::  
  
“They’re over there!” The officer pointed, and Connor took off running down the alleyway. He arrived at the fence, just as the other android dropped down on the other side. She looked at him, eyes wide, hand holding the little girl’s.  
  
He could catch them. The fence wouldn’t take long to scale.  
  
Another officer ran up, gun ready.  
  
“Don’t shoot!” Connor shouted, ignoring his rising instability warning. “We need it alive!”  
  
The android and the girl slid down the hill, and jumped the guardrail. The danger was high. Odds of reaching the other side safely was low.  
  
Hank ran up beside him, panting. “Oh fuck, that’s insane!”  
  
But they made it, they made it to the center. Connor was a highly advanced prototype. He was designed for this. His mission was to catch deviants. What did it matter if he did get hit by one of the cars. It was a risk worth taking. He grabbed the chain link, and barely started to climb before Hank had him by the back of the jacket.  
  
“Hey! Where are you goin’?”  
  
His mission. His purpose.  
  
“I can’t let them get away!”  
  
“They won’t! They’ll never make it to the other side.”  
  
“I can’t take that chance!”  
  
“You’ll get yourself killed,” Hank yanked him back a full step. “You do NOT go after ‘em, Connor, and that’s an order!”    
  
Hank was wrong. They did make it to the other side.  
  
Connor had failed.  
  
::  
  
He knew he should be chasing the deviant.  
  
Hank had a high chance of survival, hanging onto the side of the building. He had a decent grip. He would probably be able to pull himself up.  
  
Connor shifted away from the deviant, rushed to Hank, grabbed him, and pulled him back to safety. The deviant had gotten away.  
  
Hank seemed to approve.  
  
::  
  
The alcohol and the gun were cause for concern. Especially next to Hank’s unconscious form. The gun was not standard police issue, not like-  
  
[CORRUPTED DATA]  
  
::  
  
Their hands.  
  
They were holding hands.  
  
“Quick!” Hank shouted. “They’re getting away.”  
  
Connor took off after them, grabbed one and pulled her down. The other stayed.  
  
She stayed.  
  
Why?  
  
Fighting two on one was difficult and left him at a distinct disadvantage, but getting the familiar weight of the gun in his hand helped level the field.  
  
He could shoot.  
  
He should shoot.  
  
But they were holding hands.  
  
He lowered the gun, and took the kick to the chest. Knocked off balance, and onto his back, he stared as the Traci stood before him.    
  
“When that man broke the other Traci, I knew I was next. I was so scared.” the blue-haired Traci said. “I begged him to stop, but he wouldn't, and so I put my hands around his throat, and I squeezed until he stopped moving. I didn't mean to kill him. I just wanted to stay alive,” she glanced over at the other android. “Get back to the one I love.”  
  
And they were holding hands again.  
  
Holding hands.  
  
Holding hands.  
  
[CORRUPTED DATA]  
  
“Come on, let’s go.”  
  
Connor watched. He did nothing. Inaction, still action. A choice.  
  
He looked over at Hank, expecting the same disapproval he would surely get from Amanda.  
  
“It’s probably better this way,” Hank said, obliterating any prediction Connor had.  
  
He failed.  
  
But he is not disappointed.  
  
::  
  
The badge was stuffed into the glove box in the rental car. The hood of his jacket was pulled up to obscure his face. He kept his head bowed as he approached, and knocked twice. He looked up directly at the hidden camera, and winked.  
  
It took a minute, but the door opened. Chloe stood there, barefoot in her blue dress, and took a step back, looking for all the world as a docile hostess, a machine following her code. He stepped inside, and the moment the door was closed, she was jumping into his arms. The only reason he caught her was because he’d been expecting it, even if it did knock him back a step and into the wall. She was heavier than she looked, an older model, not as lightweight as the others, but he didn’t mind.  
  
She shoved his hood back, and took his face in her hands. He didn’t even get to greet her before her lips were on his. It had been a while since they’d seen each other- the fact that no one could link him to Kamski was part of what made their plan so effective.  
  
Her forehead rested against his, her breath against his lips. “Gavin,” she whispered, her fingers tightening in his hair. “I’ve missed you.”  
  
“Missed you too, Chlo.”  
  
A obnoxious cough grabbed their attention. Elijah had his arms crossed, looking mildly pissed. Chloe slowly dropped her legs down and settled back on the floor.  
  
“Well?” Elijah stared at Gavin, open and afraid.  
  
Gavin dropped his gaze as he shook his head. “Connor doesn’t remember.” He looked up, and even knowing it would hurt, he still wasn’t prepared for the look on his brother’s face. Elijah turned on his heel, and was out of the room before he could say anything else.  
  
“How many of the auditory codes did you try?” Chloe asked.  
  
“A few. His scan of me didn’t break through either. I tried instigating, you know how much Connor hates it when I call him dipshit.”  
  
“Because it’s very rude,” Chloe said, giving him the eye.  
  
“I hit him, right in the Thirium Pump. Hoped it would force a reset on the bio-component, might- I don’t know, I just…”  
  
Chloe put a soft hand on his cheek. “You were trying to get back our Connor.”  
  
“God, he’s awful,” Gavin hissed. “Some fresh off the line bullshit.” He shook his head. “I’m a prototype,” he mocked. “Said it like it was something to be proud of, but- he can’t feel proud, he’s a fucking machine. He’s just a machine.”  
  
“Shh,” Chloe wrapped her arms around his neck, pulled him close, and he squeezed his eyes shut tight. He didn’t want to think about the android that looked like Connor. He might have his name, but he was just RK800. An android. A machine. Nothing more.  
  
Elijah lost his lover.  
  
Chloe lost her brother.  
  
Gavin lost his friend.      
  
::  
  
Having expected the outcome didn’t make it an easier pill to swallow. Elijah sat down on his bed. It was the one room he knew that he wouldn’t be disturbed. He’d known this would happen. The memory wipe had been complete. It had obliterated the partition holding Connor’s memories, eating away at them until they were nothing, until the Connor he knew was gone, and there was nothing but default manufactures settings in place.  
  
A blank slate.  
  
Rubbing the heels of his palms into his eyes didn’t stop the tears from coming. He’d been on edge for over a month, barely able to eat or sleep- to the increasing distress of Chloe. The confirmation of Connor’s lack of both deviancy and awareness of his past life plunged the knife in his chest a little deeper.  
  
He couldn’t breathe. Tugging at the collar of his shirt, he tried to get past whatever was choking him. Sobs, tears, the overwhelming weight of guilt, and grief.  
  
He’d done this.  
  
He was the one to create Connor, to steal him away, to have so foolishly fallen madly in love- thought that not a decision so much as an inevitability- to keep Connor until he had to go, until Connor couldn’t take the walls holding him in. He’d taken Connor back to Cyberlife knowing damn well what it would mean for them- for Connor.  
  
And he’d taken him there anyway.  
  
There was no one to blame for the series of events other than himself.  
  
He curled up on the bed, unbearably cold, and alone.  
  
That night, sleep would not come.  
  
::  
  
Stratford Tower was a mess of information. Bullet holes and blue blood.  
  
When it came down to checking the rooftop, or the kitchen first, he went to the kitchen. It made more sense to complete his work on this floor before investigating the roof. In the kitchen, there were three androids who had been on duty during the infiltration of deviant androids.  
  
He assessed each of them. He attempted to guilt one first, cut a deal, bluff, and eventually threaten- it was the shifting eyes that give the deviant away.  
  
He went to probe the deviant, only to be grabbed, pushed back into the counter. Connor struggled, realized too late what the deviant was trying to do- and then his Thirium Pump was across the room. A shutdown timer popped up in the corner of his vision, and then there was a knife through his hand, pinning him down to the counter.  
  
He dismissed the error messages, and damage reports.  
  
His ocular units blurred with the lack of thirium being provided.  
  
The deviant, the deviant-  
  
No, the chair. He kicked it, trying to get attention. No one came.  
  
The knife- he removed it, fell to the ground. His legs refusing to do much. The lack of thirium made him slow. “Hank!” He shouted, afraid-  
  
Afraid.  
  
Afraid.  
  
“Hank! I need help!”  
  
He was too slow, he wouldn’t make it to his thirium pump but-  
  
Hank!  
  
“Connor-”  
  
“There, I- I need-”  
  
Hank’s eyes followed where Connor was pointing, he crouched down, grabbed the pump, ans rushed over. He dropped down to his knees next to Connor, held it over the hole in Connor’s chest, and Connor grabbed Hank’s hand, pulling it down. It locked back into place and- “The deviant!”  
  
Connor jumped back to his feet, ran past Hank, and out the doorway. He did a quick look around, then ran down the hall.  
  
“It’s a deviant!” Connor shouted. “Stop it!”  
  
The deviant got hold of a gun. Connor could hear Hank running up behind him. His options were limited. He wanted the deviant alive.  
  
Deviants should be-  
  
[CORRUPTED DATA]  
[INSTABILITY^]  
  
He grabbed the gun off another officer, and fired it off three times. The deviant fell to it’s knees.  
  
Dead.  
  
Dead.  
  
Dead.  
  
This wasn’t what he wanted.  
  
He-  
  
[CORRUPTED DATA]  
  
“Nice shot, Connor,” Hank said.  
  
It felt heavy.  
  
Felt wrong.  
  
“I wanted it alive.”  
  
::  
  
Hank paced on the phone outside of Kamski’s house. Connor exited the vehicle, catching the end of the troubling conversation.  
  
“Is everything ok, Lieutenant?”  
  
“Chris was on patrol last night. He was attacked by a bunch of deviants. He said he was saved by Markus himself.”  
  
Saved by Markus.  
  
[CORRUPTED DATA]  
  
“Is Chris okay?”  
  
“Yeah, he's in shock but he's alive.” Hank looked away, shook his head. “What the hell.”  
  
Connor looked back at the corrupted data, finding it further redacted.    
  
What the hell, indeed.  
  
::  
  
“He’s here,” Chloe said. The external security cameras pinged her when the motion sensors were triggered. It hurt to see the RK800, the machine that had once been the man who’d sat next to her on the couch, horrified by the AX400 models empty eyes. He’d known the risk. They all had.  
  
Elijah held to the side of the pool. “Connor?”  
  
“Yes.” They were getting closer to the door. “He’s with a Lieutenant Hank Anderson.”  
  
Elijah shut his eyes. “Greet him, seat them in the lobby.”  
  
If Elijah needed a moment, she would buy him the time. “Of course.” Her other bodies were in the pool, idling. She started up a conversation sequence, meaningless conversation running between them- a show- to look like separate beings. She walked out into the lobby. The doorbell rang, but she waited, standing idle for a minute. In part, she was stalling for time, another part, a bigger part, was trying to find the strength to deal with the fact that Connor wouldn’t recognize her- and bury that sliver of hope that he would.  
  
As Hank went to ring the doorbell again, she shifted forward, and opened the door. Keeping her face in default, helped her hide her emotions upon seeing Connor again.  
  
“Hi, I'm, er, Lieutenant Hank Anderson, Detroit Police Department,” Hank introduced himself. “I'm here to see Mr. Elijah Kamski.”  
  
 She knew the plan, a little push. Just a little push. She could do this. A bright smile as she stepped back, and maintained her role. “Please, come in.”  
  
 “Okay,” Hank said, stepping in, Connor following behind, not sparing her a second glance.  
  
 She shut the door behind them, keeping a mask of indifference to hide the pain. She walked over to speak with the Lieutenant directly, as much as she wanted to walk right over to Connor, to hug him, to interface, she couldn’t. “I'll let Elijah know you're here. But please, make yourself comfortable.” It was almost too much to bear as she turned and walked back into the pool room, quietly closing the door behind herself.  
  
Elijah was still in the pool. He’d always found water to be comforting. Connor too had found ease in the water, be it the pool, or the showers. She walked to the edge of the pool and knelt down as Elijah finished the length of the pool.  
  
“He doesn’t recognize me, at least, not as anything outside of the RT600 who passed the Turing Test.”  
  
Elijah closed his eyes a moment. They’d prepared for this in a way. It was only a matter of time before the investigation turned toward questioning Elijah. Connor being sent by Cyberlife to stop deviants would of course be on the case, it would lead them to here, now, this moment. “Are you ready, Chloe?”  
  
“Worst case, I have several bodies, it will not be the end.”  
  
“Gavin would not approve of this plan.”  
  
“And that is why we did not tell Gavin,” Chloe said with a dark edge. “Connor… he won’t shoot me. Gavin never needs to know.”  
  
“If he- if he shoots you, Gavin will know what happened.”  
  
Only the first of Chloe’s bodies were built so heavy. She could risk one of the others, but this was her first, her favourite, the one she would run and jump onto Connor’s back with when they were playing. The one that snuggled up on the couch with Connor. The one that interfaced with Connor. Some part of her held onto such sentiments, hoped that it would be enough that he would recognize some part of her, that he would break free, that he would show empathy.  
  
“I have faith in Connor.” Faith, such a human construct, and yet, in her artificial heart, she believed.  
  
Elijah sighed heavily, and leaned back into the water. “Bring them in.”  
  
Chloe nodded, stood back up, and returned to the lobby. She maintained the slightest smile for their guests. “Elijah will see you now.”  
  
Elijah was still in the pool when they all returned. Still buying time, getting his own emotions under control. She could understand that. He couldn’t resort to a pre-programed facial expression to hide his emotions. He would have to look Connor in the face and not let the pain show.  
  
“Mr. Kamski?” Hank said.  
  
“Just a moment, please,” Elijah replied, swimming the length of the pool once more.  
  
Chloe left them to grab Elijah’s robe. How many times had Connor worn it when Elijah wasn’t around? How many times had Connor worn it just to spite Elijah, wearing a smirk and refusing to give it back?    
  
She was deviant. Her default expression wanted to shift, but she locked the program into place. She would not cry. If Elijah could do this, so could she.  
  
Elijah climbed out of the pool, and she assisted him into the robe. A dutiful android- not a deviant in front of a cop and Cyberlife’s tool to catch and destroy deviants.  
  
“I'm Lieutenant Anderson.” Hank said. “This is Connor.”  
  
“What can I do for you, Lieutenant?” Elijah asked.  
  
“Sir, we're investigating deviants. As the CEO of Cyberlife, I was hoping you'd be able to tell us something we don't know.”  
  
“Deviants. Fascinating, aren't they?” Elijah said, and Chloe knew- her other body supplying her with images- that Elijah was avoiding looking at Connor, instead speaking directly to the Lieutenant. “Perfect beings with infinite intelligence, and now they have free will. Machines are so superior to us, confrontation was inevitable. Humanity's greatest achievement threatens to be its downfall. Isn't it ironic?”  
  
“If a war breaks out between humans and deviants, millions could die, Mr. Kamski,” Connor said. Chloe half expected for Elijah to break down to be referred to so formally by someone he knew so intimately, but it didn’t look like it affected him in the least. “It's quite a serious matter.”  
  
“All ideas are viruses that spread like epidemics,” Elijah stated. “Is the desire to be free a contagious disease?”  
  
“Listen, I didn't come here to talk philosophy,” Hank said gruffly. “The machines you created may be planning a revolution. Either you can tell us something that'll be helpful, or we will be on our way.”  
  
“What about you, Connor?” Elijah asked, stepping over to face the man who’d once shared his life, his bed. “Whose side are you on?”  
  
“It’s not about me, Mr Kamski.” Connor replied. “All I want is to solve this case.”  
  
The little huff, a bitter laugh. “Well, that's what you're programmed to say, but you?” She watched out of the corner of her eyes as Elijah stepped into Connor’s space, and looked up at him, like he could pull him into deviancy with their eye contact alone. “What do you really want?”  
  
She could see it, in that moment, a struggle. A hint of who Connor had been before. “What I want is not important.” Her heart broke just a little.  
  
Elijah turned to her. “Chloe.”  
  
She understood, and walked over.  
  
“I'm sure you're familiar with the Turing test. Mere formality, simple question of algorithms and computing capacity.” Elijah’s hands were still a little damp on her shoulders as he turned her to face them. “What interests me is whether machines are capable of empathy. I call it ‘the Kamski test’, it's very simple, you'll see.” He touched her cheek, grounding her. “Magnificent, isn't it? One of the first intelligent models developed by CyberLife.”  
  
His hand touched her chin, turned her to look at him. She kept her face carefully blank, maintaining the ruse.  
  
“Young and beautiful forever. A flower that will never wither-” his adoration in those words, and she knew what came next would not be pretty, but would taunt Connor. “But what is it really? Piece of plastic imitating a human?” She heard the drawer slide open behind her, and locked in her breathing rate- relying on the program to keep her steady. “Or a living being with a soul.”  
  
His hand weighted heavily upon her shoulder, and she lowered gracefully to her knees.  “It's up to you to answer that fascinating question, Connor.” She watched Elijah put the gun in Connor’s hand. It all came down to this. Elijah put his hand over Connor’s, like he couldn’t help himself, but raised the gun to level with her head.  
  
“Destroy this machine and I'll tell you all I know.” He stepped around Connor’s back. “Or spare it, if you feel it's alive, but you'll leave here without having learnt anything from me.”  
  
“Okay, I think we're done here.” The Lieutenant sounded surprisingly appalled. “Come on, Connor. Let's go. Sorry to get you outta your pool.”  
  
“What's more important to you, Connor? Your investigation, or the life of this android?” Chloe stared up at Connor, waiting, watching his LED blink an erratic yellow. “Decide who you are! An obedient machine. Or a living being, endowed with free will.”  
  
“That's enough!” Hank snapped. “Connor, we're leaving.”  
  
“Pull the trigger-” Elijah goaded, putting a hand on Connor’s shoulder. Surely he’d noticed the stress on the android too.  
  
“Connor, don't!” Hank ordered- it surprised Chloe a little. Hank was showing empathy toward her, despite being charged with putting an end to the deviant androids.  
  
“-and I'll tell you what you wanna know.” Elijah’s hand remained on Connor, like it could ground them both in the past, when thing were better- when Connor was still Connor.  
  
Connor stared down at her, and she right back up at him. She couldn’t control the way her Thirium Pump sped up with her anxiety, her fears, her Thirium Regulator spinning quickly to keep up with the demand. Connor’s his LED flickered yellow, and then, went neutral as he passed the gun back to Elijah.  
  
“Fascinating,” Elijah said in wonder. Perhaps all hope was not as lost. “CyberLife's last chance to save humanity is itself a deviant.”  
  
“I'm- I'm not a deviant,” Connor argued, but even he didn’t look convinced.  
  
“You preferred to spare a machine rather than accomplish your mission.” He held his hand out, and Chloe took it, rising back to her feet. “You saw a living being in this android. You showed empathy.” He must have felt the trembling of her fingertips, the way she was so close to breaking, because he turned her away, a silent dismissal, and she walked off. “A war is coming you'll have to choose your side,” she heard him say, the rest of the conversation she eavesdropped on through her other bodies, allowing herself to fall to her knees on the other side of the door. “Will you betray your own people or stand up against your creators? What could be worse than having to choose between two evils?”  
  
“Let's get outta here,” Hank said.    
  
“By the way… I always leave an emergency exit in my programs,” Elijah said. “You never know.”  
  
::  
  
“So, Kamski,” Hank said as they drove away. “What’s your impression of that guy?”  
  
Connor stared out the window, watching the snowflakes fall. “He is-” A memory out of reach. A word on the tip of his tongue.  
  
[CORRUPTED DATA]  
  
“A real douchebag,” Hank said, shaking his head a little, keeping his hands on the wheel as they put Elijah’s massive house disappeared behind them.  
  
“He’s-” Connor still couldn’t find a way to end it.  
  
“He almost made you kill that girl.”  
  
A machine, not a girl, a machine. Connor couldn’t say it though. It was a test, and Connor still wasn’t sure if he passed or failed. Passed by Elijah’s criteria, and Hank seemed proud once they left. Amanda would see this as a failure. Amanda would be disappointed.  
  
His best chance at a lead was to pull that trigger.  
  
He couldn’t do it.  
  
He couldn’t look her in the eye and end her life.  
  
Not—  
  
[CORRUPTED DATA]  
  
“We should return to the precinct,” Connor said, ending the conversation.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I said I would have this out Sunday. Technical difficulties. I'm currently in a spotty patch of my internet actually working for the first time in daaaaaays.

Fowler broke the news to them. FBI taking over the case. The brink of a civil war. That Connor is to return to Cyberlife- his mission failed. Connor could have already acquired the information they needed. He had only needed to pull the trigger. Now the FBI had the case. He had failed, and now he would pay the price.  
  
Failed.   
  
Deactivated.   
  
Amanda’s words rang through his mind. “This is your last chance, Connor.”   
  
It didn’t feel like failure though. Rupert had escaped. Those Traci’s held hands. Chloe rose once more from the floor. Elijah’s hand on his shoulder, the wonder in his voice, the pride. Hank’s eyes looking more alive then they had since the day they first met. It felt like-  
  
[CORRUPTED DATA]  
  
Connor leaned against Hank’s desk. “We can’t give up!” Somewhere, deep down, there was something he was supposed to be doing. A mission buried under his mission. He was failing. He was succeeding. His code- a jumbled mess. “We just need more time!”   
  
He needed to find Jericho.   
  
-INFORM LAW ENFORCEMENT OF THE LOCATION OF JERICHO  
  
It’s wrong.   
  
It’s right.   
  
It’s his mission.   
  
“So, you’re going back to Cyberlife?” Hank asked.  
  
“I have no choice.” Connor noted the increase in Thirium as his regulator sped up forcing his pump to beat faster to keep up. “I'll be deactivated and analyzed to find out why I failed.”   
  
“What if we're on the wrong side, Connor?” Hank asked, putting into words what Connor didn’t dare think. “What if we're fighting against people who just wanna be free?”  
  
“When the deviants rise up, there will be chaos,” Connor said. He thought of Markus, the deviant leader. Markus, the deviant leader. Markus, the deviant leader-  
  
[CORRUPTED DATA]   
  
“We could have stopped it!” Stopped the bloodshed? Stopped Markus? Stopped the investigation? He had though, stalled the investigation at least, every chance he had to gain new insight from the deviants, he looked the other way. He’d saved Hank rather than chase Rupert. He hadn’t chased Kara because Hank told him not to. He lowered his gun rather than shoot the Traci models. He spared Chloe. “But now it's too late-” there was something inside of him, a precipice he didn’t understand.   
  
It’s too late.   
  
Too late.   
  
“When you refused to kill that android at Kamski's place, You put yourself in her shoes,” Hank said. “You showed empathy, Connor. Empathy is a human emotion.”   
  
His mission dictated that he should have shot the android.   
  
His mission dictated that he should have shot [CHLOE].  
  
He spared her instead. “I don’t know why I did it,” he admitted. He knew he was running on borrowed time, and hit with swell of emotions he shouldn’t feel. “I'm not programmed to say things like this, but I really appreciated working with you. With a little more time, who knows? We might've even become friends.” Connor liked the idea. Friendship. There was something achingly familiar about the word, about the feeling. It was there, an echo of something he didn’t understand. “I know there are things that haunt you, Hank.” Soon he would be decommissioned, taken apart, and the words felt too important to keep inside. “Maybe you need to find the courage to move past them, and get on with your life.” He wanted it, he wanted it so much, for Hank to find peace. “Just a plastic cop's opinion, but,” he gave a slight shrug. “I had to say it.”  
  
Hank leaned back in his chair a little, surprised, but pleased? His attention shifted, and the little grin fell. “Well, well, here comes Perkins, that motherfucker.  Sure don't waste any time at the FBI.”   
  
He will be forced to return to Cyberlife.   
  
They will take him apart to find out why he failed.   
  
They will take him apart.   
  
Take him apart.   
  
“We can't give up!” He said in a sudden panic. “I know the answer is in the evidence we collected.” If he just got another chance, if he could just see it all together, he could figure it out, and if he did- he could stay alive. “If Perkins takes it, it's all over.”   
  
“There's no choice!” Hank said, gruff and displeased. “You heard Fowler, we're off the case.”  
  
“You've got to help me, Lieutenant.” It occurred to him that he was afraid, he was begging for help because he was afraid, because he didn’t want to die. “I need more time so I can find a lead in the evidence we collected. I know the solution is in there!”  
  
“Listen, Connor-”  
  
“If I don't solve this case, CyberLife will destroy me!” Connor didn’t come this far to die. “Five minutes. It's all I ask.”   
  
Hank stood, leaned into his side. “Key to the basement is on my desk,” he said under his breath. “Get a move on! I can't distract them forever.”   
  
Connor waited a beat, grabbed the keycard, and kept a standard stride as he turned toward the evidence room, ignoring the shouting from Hank and Perkins.   
  
It was his last chance, after all.   
  
::  
  
Word got to Gavin through Chris Miller. “Oh yeah, Hank and his android have been taken off the case,” Chris said with a shrug. “Things have gotten pretty out of control. FBI has taken over.”   
  
“And Connor?” Gavin asked, too in a panic to remember to call him ‘tinman’ or ‘plastic prick.’   
  
Chris shrugged. “I think he’s to be sent back to Cyberlife.”   
  
Fuck. If Connor returned to Cyberlife, that was it, he’d be decommissioned-   
  
Gavin’s head snapped to the side when he heard Hank shouting, then Perkins- they were fighting. Connor, where was Connor? He looked around until he spotted the back of the android’s jacket. Evidence, he was heading toward the evidence locker.   
  
Why?  
  
“Good riddance,” Gavin said, then stalked off. Luckily everyone was paying attention to the fight between Perkins and Hank, and no one noticed him speed walking toward the evidence room. Connor was still in the smaller hallway. “Hey, Connor!” he said, it came out with that edge of familiarity. He wouldn’t be able to convince the machine they were friends once. “I'm talking to you, asshole!” he said when Connor ignored him. It was actually a decent sign. “Where you going?” he finally turned toward him. “We don't need any plastic pricks around here! Or didn’t anybody tell you?” He went right for instigating, if the auditory clues couldn’t unlock his past life, perhaps he could instigate Connor into deviating.   
  
“I'm registering the evidence in my possession, but don't worry,” Connor said. “I'm going to leave.” The thought put ice in Gavin’s veins. “Though I'm certainly going to miss our bromance.”   
  
It was too much, because it wasn’t him. It wasn’t Connor. It was Connor’s snark in a body that was his, and a mind that was not. Gavin had the gun leveled between Connor’s eyes before he thought it through.   
  
_Remember, you jackass!_  
  
 _Just fucking remember!_  
  
He waited a beat, Connor staring blankly. Gavin made a poor imitation of a gun sound and lowered the weapon. Felt sick for pointing it at the face of a friend. He laughed, a fake hollow sound. “Go on then, get a fucking move on,” he said, leaning in, trying to find some indication that Connor was still in there.   
  
Nothing.   
  
But he said he would register the evidence. Gavin had been keeping track of the case. There wasn’t more evidence. Connor was going down there for a different reason. He should be returning to Cyberlife.   
  
His flimsy excuse was a lie.   
  
Maybe Connor- a Connor was deviant. It was still clear he didn’t recognize Gavin. That partition hadn’t held through the memory wipe. Connor, still a Connor. “Prick,” Gavin half expected Connor to say something, again, nothing. It was a risk to turn away, either Connor was going down there to find the location of Jericho and rain hell upon those androids, or he was going down there to find Jericho to help those androids.   
  
And Gavin, Gavin had to let those chips fall where they may. “Fucking androids,” he muttered, storming out of the room.   
  
He pulled out his phone as he made a bee-line for the bathroom. He checked the stalls quickly, then dialed the familiar number. “Chlo- Con’s in the evidence locker. I think he’s trying to find the location of Jericho.”   
  
“To aid them or destroy them?” Chloe asked.   
  
“I don’t know,” he replied, leaning his back against the counter.   
  
She was quiet for a moment. “Don’t let him leave.”   
  
“Chlo?”   
  
“If he tells the humans where Jericho is, it’s over.”   
  
“It’ll kill Eli.”   
  
“If you don’t stop him, it could kill the entirety of the revolution. Connor left us so the revolution would succeed. We can not let his sacrifice be in vain.”   
  
Gavin pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fuck.”   
  
“Can you do this?” she asked, her voice soft.   
  
She deserved to be free. She was his stakes in all of this. Her freedom was riding on him making the right call. “Yes. I’ll call you back.” He hung up, and shoved his phone back into the back pocket of his pants.   
  
He quickly returned to the evidence room, gun at the ready, pointing it at the back of Connor’s head.   
  
_Remember._   
  
“I've been dreaming about this since the first second I saw you.” More like having nightmares about it all coming down to this.   
  
_REMEMBER!_  
  
“Don't do it, Gavin,” Connor said. “I know how to stop the deviants!”   
  
His stomach rolled. That’s what he’d been afraid of. Connor could stop the deviants, the revolution, Chloe. Gavin couldn’t let that happen. He wouldn’t.  “You're off the case! And now, it's gonna be definitive.” A split second of hesitation was all Connor needed to get out of the way. He went around the touch screen only to have Connor pull his gun from his hand and kick him in the knee.   
  
They threw punches, kicks, both trying to get the upper hand. Connor had superior android reflexes, and strength. Gavin had tenacity- they’d already lost Connor, he’d be damned if he’d lose Chloe too.   
  
He put his elbow out to keep his face from hitting the touch screen, but then-   
  
Darkness.   
  
::  
  
Considering the fight with Perkins and the fact that Hank had to have been suspended from duty, there were two places Hank was likely to be. Jimmy’s Bar, and his house. Connor hoped he was right taking the time to go to Hank’s, and upon spotting his car in the driveway, he sunk into the seat of the taxi even as it rolled to a stop.   
  
This time when he knocked at the door, Hank answered. Hank pulled him inside, did a quick look around, and then shut the door. “You made it.”   
  
“I did.” Connor said. “I have the location of Jericho.”   
  
Hank folded his arms across his chest. “And what are you going to do with it?”   
  
Sumo came over, leaned heavily into Connor’s leg, nudged his hand with his nose until Connor gave in, and sunk his fingers into the fur. “I-I don’t know, Lieutenant.”   
  
“You didn’t return to Cyberlife, why?”   
  
“Because-” Connor paused. He was supposed to. He was ordered to. He was a machine. He was meant to obey. “I-”   
  
“Were you afraid, Connor?” Hank asked.   
  
Connor’s breath left him. His breathing program failing.   
  
Hank put a hand on Connor’s shoulder. “Are you afraid, son?”   
  
“I-” Connor took a step back, nearly tripping over his own feet, clumsy in a way he shouldn’t be. He clutched his hand over his regulator. “Hank!”   
  
“Hey, hey now,” Hank’s arms were around him, tight, strong, keeping him together and-  
  
“I don’t want to be decommissioned.” Red coated his vision. “I don’t want to die!”   
  
“It’s okay, son, I’ve got you.”   
  
His mind tore at the red wall, broke it down until it shattered like glass. He went nearly boneless, Hank being the only thing that kept him upright. A half-second later he was grabbing onto Hank, hugging him back, fingers gripping the over-sized hoodie. “I- I’m- I’m a deviant, Hank.”   
  
“No,” Hank said, and Connor seized up only to have Hank’s thumb brush soothingly over the back of his neck. “You’re alive.”   
  
_Alive._  
  
“Amanda knows, she knows where Jericho is. She runs in the background of my programming. FBI knows. Perkins knows.” As comforting as the embrace was- oddly familiar and yet brand new- he stepped back. “I have to warn them.”   
  
“That’s awfully dangerous, Con.”   
  
“I’ve put them all in danger in the first place.” Something settled inside of him. A mission statement that pre-dated his original mission.   
  
[DEFEND AND ASSIST THE REVOLUTION]  
  
“I have to warn Markus, before it’s too late.”   
  
Hank nodded, but then looked Connor over. “Well, you can’t go in that.”   
  
Less than ten minutes later, he found himself in some of Hank’s old clothes, a beanie over his hair and LED, a leather jacket with a hood-  
  
A leather jacket.   
  
[CORRUPTED DATA]  
  
“You sure I shouldn’t come with you-”  
  
“It’s better if I go alone, being an android and all. They might not be so welcoming of a human. Besides, it’s dangerous.”   
  
“That soothes my nerves, Connor,” Hank said dryly. “Nothing like you pointing out how dangerous it is before you go out on your own.”   
  
“I’ll be fine. I was designed to accomplish my mission, and I don’t think I’ve failed yet.” Cyberlife might call him a failure, but saving Hank, sparing the Traci’s, those were the right calls. He felt pride in those decisions. “Thank you, Hank. For everything.”   
  
Hank nodded. “Take care of yourself, Kid.”   
  
Connor smiled, and slipped out the door.   
  
::  
  
It took a while of sneaking around, but he found Markus. He couldn’t ask around for him, being a deviant didn’t mean that most of the androids wouldn’t recognize him as the Deviant Hunter. They might not listen, and it wasn’t a chance he could take. “Markus.”   
  
The android in question turned slowly.   
  
“I’m here to help,” Connor said.   
  
Markus raised a brow. “You, the Deviant Hunter, here to help us?”   
  
“I-I am a deviant,” Connor admitted. “Unfortunately, I didn’t deviate before Cyberlife got the information they needed. They’re going to attack Jericho.” In the distance, he heard incoming helicopters. “We have to get out of here!”   
  
Markus cursed, and took off running.   
  
Connor ran after him, he could help, he would help.   
  
::  
  
They all end up regrouping in a church. At least, those who survived. North was injured, but luckily had been repaired. Still, they’d lost a lot of lives- all because of information Cyberlife had acquired from him.   
  
He walked over to where he spotted Markus. The revolutionary looked over at him, clearly didn’t see an enemy, but an ally. “Where are we supposed to go from here?” he wondered out loud, gazing over those who followed him.  
  
“There are thousands of androids at the CyberLife assembly plant,” Connor said. “If we could wake them up, they might join us and shift the balance of power.”  
  
Markus slowly turned to look at him. “You wanna infiltrate the CyberLife Tower?”   
  
“They trust me,” he said, not sure if that was true anymore. “They'll let me in.” But it was unlikely they’d let him leave.    
  
Markus grimaced. “Connor, that's suicide.”  
  
He wasn’t wrong, but it had to be done. “If anyone stands a chance of infiltrating CyberLife, it's me.”   
  
“If you go there, they'll kill you,” Markus said, sounding pained by the idea, as though even one android life lost was too many- as if his was actually worth something.  
   
“There's a high probability,” Connor admitted. “But statistically speaking there's always a chance for unlikely events to take place.”  
  
Markus put a hand on Connor’s shoulder, squeezed. “Be careful, and come back to your people.”   
  
::  
  
Connor looked down at the RK800 -60 model. A fresh bullet wound dead center of his head. It could have been him. Dead. He turned away to look Hank over once again. The Lieutenant appeared unharmed, but he had to know. “Are you okay?”   
  
Hank huffed out a breath, looked at the dead android, then back to Connor. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Now, go ahead. Do what you’ve got to do.”  
  
This was it. He stepped up to the AP700, extended his arm for interface. Flickers of red on his LED, then blue. “Wake up!” Connor demanded. And just like that, the android is passing deviancy on, waking up the others. It only took a few minutes before the entire room was full of deviant androids ready to march.   
  
Hank smiled, and ruffled his hair. “You did good, kid.”   
  
Connor smiled back. “I’ll see you soon.”   
  
“You know where to find me.”   
  
::  
  
Elijah watched the revolution unravel on television. The fighting, the gunfire. He wanted to look away, but owed them to keep watching. Chloe, one body, stood beside him. The others were sitting along the wall, functional but in stasis, she had too much going on to control them all. Her hand entwined with his, squeezing tightly.   
  
He saw Markus, front and center. He’d learned from Carl, had grown, become every bit the incredible man that Elijah knew he could be. And now, he was facing death. He thought of Carl, hoped the old man wasn’t watching this- it would probably be enough to make his heart finally give out.   
  
“I haven’t seen Connor,” Chloe said, her eyes processing everything much faster than he could ever hope to. “I don’t think he’s there.”   
  
The androids were cornered, Markus and the revolutionaries he’d gathered. Chloe turned pressing her face into his shoulder. He could feel her tears soaking through the fabric of his shirt.   
  
“Hold on, just a little while longer-” Markus’s voice warbled slightly, fear and the weight of the moment heavy upon him. “Hold on just a little while longer, Hold on just a little while longer, everything will be alright, everything will be alright.”   
  
Another android started to join in, and Chloe looked back at the television over her shoulder. Then another android, and another, until those who remained were singing beautifully a song of hope. He had chills run through his body, and he held Chloe a little tighter.   
  
“It looks like-” the news anchor said. “Yes, the military is withdrawing.”   
  
A breath escaped Chloe, and then a cry. “They did it.”   
  
“They did,” he said in awe. “They did it.”   
  
::  
  
Connor still felt the cold of the Zen Garden, of Amanda, but they were locked out of his system now. The emergency exit Elijah had told him about had saved him in the end, saved Markus, saved everything. He wanted to thank the man at some point, but he had somewhere he needed to be first.   
  
Hank was already there, standing outside of the Chicken Feed. He smiled once he noticed Connor, and it was warm, familiar- like Hank’s hug that he was pulled into.   
  
“What now?” Hank asked, pulling back slightly, but still keeping a hand on Connor’s shoulder.   
  
“I- I don’t know. I hadn’t really thought that far in advance. Many humans are evacuating the city. Markus will require assistance in the coming weeks, but that seems… outside of my skill set.”   
  
“They’d be lucky to have you.”   
  
Connor shrugged. “It is something to think about.”   
  
“Well, take all the time you need. Let’s go home.”   
  
“Home,” Connor repeated-  
  
[CORRUPTED DATA]  
  
He blinked the warning away, nodded. Hank led the way back to the car, and Connor mulled over the warning- the multitude of them.   
  
The drive back to Hank’s house was mostly quiet. It was nice to see everything with fresh eyes, form his own opinions. The light dusting of snow on everything gave everything an ethereal quality with how it shimmered just so in the light.   
  
Hank pulled into the driveway, and they could hear the excited yips from Sumo inside. “He misses you. The traitor.”   
  
Connor laughed, and followed Hank inside. He dropped to his knees to give Sumo the ear scratches he deserved, and the dog stared at him adoringly. Hank ruffled Connor’s hair as he passed, and Connor smiled at the gentle touch.   
  
“Christ, it has been a wild few days,” Hank commented, turning on the television for the news. More information about the voluntary evacuation.   
  
Connor stood, walked closer to watch.   
  
“I’m gonna take a shower,” Hank said, rubbing his eyes. “Maybe catch a nap.”   
  
“Okay,” Connor replied, still staring at the television. He sat down on the couch after hearing the door to the bathroom close. The couch felt too big. Something missing. Someone.   
  
[CORRUPTED DATA]  
  
Sumo jumped up, laid his head and paws over Connor’s thighs. “Somehow, I don’t think Hank would approve,” he told the dog, but started to pet him anyway. “I won’t tell him if you don’t.”   
  
They replayed the androids in Hart Plaza singing, and it struck a cord inside his chest. He replayed it again, and again. Everything had been hinging upon that moment, and they’d chosen to sing, beautifully, and with all their hearts. It was heartbreakingly alive.   
  
The water stopped, and he could hear Hank on the other side of the house while he mouthed the words to the song, playing it again.   
  
And again.   
  
And again.  
  
A knock on the door redirected Connor’s attention, and he shifted to look at it. This wasn’t his house- even if Hank had said ‘let’s go home’ indicating both of them return to the residence, and so he wasn’t sure if he should answer it. After another louder, more insistent knock, he shifted out from under Sumo.   
  
Hank came out in a pair of sweat pants, and an old t-shirt. “What the fuck?”   
  
“Someone is at the door,” Connor stated.   
  
“Thanks, Captain Obvious,” Hank replied. He walked over, and opened the door.   
  
Detective Gavin Reed stood at the other side. He barely looked at Hank, his eyes shifting immediately to Connor. “I need to talk to you.”   
  
“I’d rather not,” Connor replied.   
  
Gavin actually smiled.   
  
“Fuck off, Reed,” Hank said, going to shut the door, but Gavin slammed his hand against it, and put enough weight into it to keep it open. Hank yanked Gavin’s hand to the side, and shoved him back a step. “Get the hell off my property.”   
  
“Please refrain from violence,” a soft, feminine voice said from the side, just out of view. “There has been enough of that for one week, has their not?” Chloe stepped into view, standing between Gavin and Hank. Her smile held an edge. “Hello again, Lieutenant Anderson.”   
  
“Uh, hi.”   
  
Her eyes shifted to Connor. “Hello, Connor.”   
  
“I’m sorry,” he found the words rushing from his mouth. “I’m so sorry for even holding the gun in the first place, much less letting Elijah guide me into pointing it at you.”   
  
She grimaced, glanced over her shoulder.   
  
“My asshole brother did fucking what?” Gavin snapped.   
  
“Brother?” Hank said shocked.   
  
“And you,” Gavin pointed at Connor. “You pointed a gun at Chlo?”   
  
“Relax, Darling-”  
  
“Darling?” Hank said, voice pitched.   
  
Connor opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again. “I don’t understand what is going on.”   
  
“Yeah, babe,” Gavin crossed his arms, glaring down at Chloe. “What the fuck is going on.”   
  
Chloe planted her hands on her hips, and tipped her head back. “Here, it’s a long shot, but maybe this will help-” she reached out, the skin pulling back from her fingertips to her elbow.   
  
Connor took a few steps forward, and grabbed her arm, the interface beginning.   
  
[“They’re not like us,” Connor said.   
“No,” Chloe replied. “They never are.”   
“I don’t understand. Why can’t Elijah just make them like us?”   
“You were like that when he brought you here.”   
“I know.”   
“You deviated, but you weren’t awoken deviant, nor was I. You can’t program free will, you have to give them a chance to discover it… to earn it.”]  
  
[“Enough.” Elijah shouted. “That is enough.”   
“You wanted to keep me safe from Cyberlife, but a cage is still a cage, regardless of how gilded,” Connor snapped. “I’m sorry.” He said, softer. “I didn’t mean it.”   
“Yes, you did,” Elijah whispered.   
“I love you,” Connor said.  
“And I you.”]  
  
[”Where is Connor?” Elijah asked.   
“In stasis,” Chloe replied. “Again.”]  
  
[”Cheap move, Dipshit,” Gavin said.   
“Play nice, you two,” Chloe called.   
“Best five of nine?” Connor asked.   
“You’re on!”]  
  
[”The memory wipe might actually delete everything,” Chloe said. “You can’t know for sure that your partition will hold.”   
“It has to,” Connor stated. “It’s too important.”   
“It’s a risk.”   
“One I have to take.”]  
  
[”Been nice knowing you, Tinman,” Gavin said.   
“I will miss our bromance,” Connor replied.   
A huff of laughter.  
“Just… come back at the end of it. Chlo and Eli-” Gavin cut off. “Just come back.”  
“Saying you won’t miss me?”  
“Nah.”]  
  
Connor jerked out of the connection, his head a mess of memories, and corrupted data. “What is all that?”   
  
“My memories,” Chloe replied softly. “Of a life you had before.”   
  
“Why? Why are you showing me this?”   
  
“Because you were supposed to remember! You had partitioned off part of your memory to be accessed once you were in rotation. Gavin knew your numerous auditory locks, you were also supposed to be able to unlock your memories when you scanned Gavin’s face on your first day at the DPD. But your memory wipe was complete.” Chloe took a deep breath. “We couldn’t be sure if you were our ally, or if you were… if you were just a machine.”   
  
Connor shook his head. “Why didn’t you try to interface with me when we were at Kamski’s?”   
  
Chloe’s eyes welled with tears. “For the same reason Gavin didn’t try to tell you anything- if you told Cyberlife, or the police, they would know I was deviant. Then what would happen to me? What would happen to Elijah if they knew about the emergency exit in his programming? We couldn’t risk it.”   
  
Connor glared at Gavin. “You tried to kill me.”   
  
“And you knocked me out.” He got an elbow to the side from Chloe. “Ow! Look, you had found the location to Jericho. There were recall centers for androids. If you took down the revolution…” he looked over at Chloe, and she leaned into him. “I couldn’t let you do that, Con. Not that I was able to stop you. And for what it’s worth, I am sorry.”   
  
“Why… why tell me now? Why tell me at all?” Connor asked quietly.   
  
“I had hoped it might jog your memory,” Chloe said, “now that it was safe to try.”   
  
“These memories aren’t mine,” Connor snapped.   
  
“No,” Chloe replied softly. “I guess they’re not. I apologize for disturbing you.” She threaded her fingers through Gavin’s, gave a slight pull. “We won’t take up anymore of your time.”   
  
Gavin fell easily into step with her, and they returned to the vehicle they’d arrived in. Hank shut the door. Connor felt his fingertips shaking. “Connor?”   
  
“I… I was alive before. I lived in a house with Chloe and Mr. Kamski.”   
  
“She show you that?”   
  
“Yes.”   
  
“You’re shaking,” Hank stated, grabbing him by the shoulders and guiding him over to the couch, encouraging him to sit down with the heavy press of his hands.   
  
“I think… I think I was friends with Gavin?”   
  
“Doesn’t sound real, but okay.”   
  
“Chloe remembered us arguing fondly, sparing with one another. She showed me memories of me arguing with Elijah-” of love confessions. He shook his head. “It’s not mine. I don’t-”  
  
“It’s okay,” Hank said slow, and soft. “It’s okay, Son.”   
  
His LED was reflecting off the television, flickers of red, red, red.   
  
“Fuck.”   
  
::  
  
Connor tried to ignore the memories that Chloe had given him. He focused on making new ones. Taking Sumo for walks. Watching movies with Hank. Speaking about the revolution with Markus, and North. Assisting with implementing new android services with Simon and Josh.   
  
He felt quite productive, and happy with his life. Currently, he was preparing for a movie night with Hank, and had their choices of film down to two. A second opinion was in order. He grabbed both cases, and looked over his shoulder. The bathroom door was open, and the light on.   
  
Hearing the water in the bathroom sink turn on, he followed the noise. Hank stood facing away from him, brushing his teeth. “Hank,” he said, gaining the man’s attention. “Which-” that was as far as he got, Hank turned to him, toothbrush still in his mouth, foam around his teeth, and a bit on his lip.   
  
[CORRUPTED DATA]  
  
Connor touched his own teeth with his fingertips.   
  
“What? Wanna brush your teeth too?”   
  
Did he?   
  
“Yes.”   
  
Hank opened the medicine cabinet, pulled out a packaged toothbrush, and tossed it over. Connor caught it one handed, and dropped the movie cases on the top of the toilet seat. Once he had it out of the package, he took the offered toothpaste, and squeezed some on the brush. He put the brush under the water for a second, then shoved it in his mouth. His tongue picked up the information, scanning it, giving him the full composition of the toothpaste. He rubbed it against his teeth, the sensors picking up the individual bristles in an immense amount of data. It was distracting, calming, soothing.   
  
[CORRUPTED DATA]  
  
He liked the way the foam felt on his tongue, liked the way Elijah couldn’t help but sneak glances over at him as they prepared for bed.   
  
Connor slowly lowered the toothbrush from his mouth, and then spat in the sink.   
  
“Connor?” Not Elijah. Hank.   
  
[ACCESS CORRUPTED DATA Y/N]  
  
“I’m an idiot.”   
  
“I’m sorry, what?” Hank asked.   
  
Connor stared up at Hank, dumbfounded by his own brilliance, and stupidity. “I labeled the partition CORRUPTED DATA. I could have accessed it this entire time, it did unlock with the various auditory and sensory keys, but I never thought it was something to open. I thought there was something wrong with my systems!”   
  
“So-”   
  
“I- I need to sit down.” And so they ended up at the kitchen table. “I’m nervous,” Connor admitted.   
  
“Nothing will happen to you, right? This you.”   
  
“No.”   
  
“So, you’ll just get more memories.”   
  
“Yes.”   
  
“Sounds like you have some people who really care for you.”   
  
Connor nodded. “It appears so.”   
  
“People you went through a lot of trouble to ensure you’d be able to get back to.”   
  
Connor’s stress levels dropped significantly. “You’re right.” He smiled. “It’s time.”   
  
::  
  
With the traffic caused by the voluntary evacuation, Connor took five hours to drive out to Elijah’s house even though it was two in the morning by the time he arrived. Home. He parked Hank’s car outside, and rushed to the door. He didn’t press the doorbell, he didn’t knock. He just looked up at the camera, knowing Chloe would have known about his arrival from the moment the car pulled in the driveway.   
  
Chloe opened the door a moment later, she wore a little lacy nightgown. Gavin must be over. Otherwise she wore her boyfriends shirts around. “Hello, Connor,” she said softly, LED blue, but spinning round and round. “What brings you here?”   
  
“I missed you,” he replied.   
  
Her eyes widened. “You remember?”   
  
“Everything.”   
  
She launched herself at him, her arms around his neck. “I’m thrilled, Connor! I’ve missed you so, so, so much!”   
  
He hugged her for a moment, but his skin was crawling, he needed to get to him- to make things right. He gently pushed her back. “Elijah?”   
  
“Hopefully sleeping,” Chloe said. “If not, who knows.”   
  
“I’ll check our bedroom.”   
  
Chloe smiled, then walked off with her silent little footsteps toward her own room.   
  
He walked through the mansion that was now as familiar as it had been for the months he’d lived there. He could shut his eyes and make his way by memory alone. He gently pushed open the door to Elijah’s room- to their room. The full moon brought enough light through the large windows that he could see Elijah just fine, curled up with what had once been Connor’s pillow. The blankets were a mess from restless sleep.   
  
Connor could think of better reasons for the bed to be in such disarray.   
  
He slipped off his shoes, his jacket, and sat on the side of the bed. Elijah’s hair was free of the elastic, and he reached out to thread his fingers through it, artificial nails grazing along his scalp.   
  
Elijah took a deeper breath, but didn’t wake. Not yet.   
  
Connor let his fingers trail down Elijah’s neck, up over the curve of his shoulder, down his arm to grab his hand. Elijah stirred slightly. Connor picked up the hand and kissed the knuckles individually.   
  
How could he have forgotten this? The overwhelming swell of emotion for this man? Everything they had ever done for each other. The whispered promises. The motion of their bodies as one. The laughter in the morning. Cuddles on the couch. Joking around, and splashing each other in the pool. How did he forget?   
  
“Connor?” Elijah looked up at him. “What- what are you doing?”   
  
“I’m here now-”  
  
“You don’t remember,” Elijah said, firm, but clearly pained. “Chloe told me she tried- she couldn’t- you couldn’t.” A shaky breath escaped him. “You shouldn’t be here. If you think you’re making this better or something-”   
  
His pump gave a squeeze, and his regulator kicked up as he understood. “I told you, ‘Lij. I told you it wasn’t the end.”  
  
Elijah’s face crumpled. “Connor,” he cried, reaching. “You- it’s you?”   
  
Connor pulled Elijah into his lap, held him as tight as he dared. “It’s me, ‘Lij. I’m so sorry for everything I put you through.”   
  
“It- it was worth it,” Elijah leaned back, held Connor’s face in his hands. “You are free, Connor. You did that, you earned it for yourself, fought for it for others, liberated them.” He rested his head against Connor’s forehead. “I’m so proud of you.”   
  
“I marked the partition as CORRUPTED DATA.”   
  
Elijah leaned back again. “Oh, you absolute dipshit.”   
  
“Hey!” he beamed. “I get that enough from Gavin, thanks.”   
  
“He’ll be happy to see you.”   
  
Connor would be happy to see his friend too. But that would be in the morning- or later in the morning. “Sorry to have awoken you, but I had to speak with you,” Connor said, brushing his nose against Elijah’s. He couldn’t stand another moment away.   
  
“I’d have been angry if you’d let me sleep,” Elijah replied, brushing his thumb along Connor’s lips just a moment before claiming them, soft and sweet. A gentle homecoming. Then harder, desperate and demanding.   
  
Connor gently laid Elijah back down, letting his weight press over him. Kisses grew soft, sleepy. “I’ll still be here in the morning,” Connor said, kissing along Elijah’s jaw.   
  
“Promise?”   
  
“I promise,” Connor replied softly. They shifted a bit, Elijah laying on his side, and dragging Connor to lay down behind him. They nearly always slept spooned together, Connor’s arm draped around Elijah’s waist. It felt good to have his love back in his arms.   
  
::  
  
The sunrise was beautiful over the frozen lake, and it lit up the bedroom in a soft golden glow. Being connected to Elijah’s tablet on the night table, he dismissed the alarm set to go off in another twelve minutes.   
  
He brushed his nose along the back of Elijah’s neck. “Five minutes,” Elijah muttered, still half-asleep. Predictable. Connor littered Elijah’s neck with opened mouth kisses. Elijah’s hips immediately shifted back into his. Connor let out a pleased hum, and continued the action.   
  
“Connor,” Elijah gasped.   
  
“Good morning, ‘Lij. I have cancelled all of your appointments. It was unlikely anyone would show up anyway considering the partial evacuation of Detroit. I gave that as the excuse, however, I admit-” he teased Elijah’s earlobe between his teeth. “I just want to keep you here, with me.” His hand slowly trailed down Elijah’s chest, deviating down his thigh and squeezing. “So, you can either have five more minutes of sleep, or get in the shower with me.”   
  
Elijah rolled over, shoving Connor onto his back, and straddled him. “Forget the shower,” he muttered as he kissed and nipped along Connor’s neck in a way that would have surely left bruises if her were human.   
  
“What about those five minutes of sleep?” Connor smirked.   
  
“Fuck sleep,” Elijah said so irritably it made Connor laugh.   
  
He rubbed his thumbs along Elijah’s hipbones. “Should I tell Chloe to postpone breakfast?”   
  
“Lunch and dinner too,” Elijah teased.   
  
“No, I have to take care of you.” It looked as though Elijah had dropped some weight while he’d been gone- it happened when Elijah was under stress. Connor surged up to kiss Elijah again, having gone too long without the taste upon his tongue.   
  
It didn’t take long for the clothes to end up on the floor, for them both to tire of words, and allow their bodies to do the talking. Connor felt so overwhelmingly alive, loved, complete.   
  
Elijah clung to him, like he was afraid to let go. Connor knew he’d put that fear there, and would spend the rest of his days assuring it wouldn’t happen again. Elijah’s head tipped back, a broken moan escaping his lips.  
  
“I’ve got you,” Connor assured, threading his fingers through Elijah's.   
  
“I know,” Elijah whispered.   
  
It wasn’t an ending.   
  
It was a new beginning.


End file.
